Page 6 - Dream May 2020 English

COVID-19 SPECIAL
MUTATION
Why it’s a win by virus
B.K. Tyagi
“The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on the planet is the virus.”
—Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D., Nobel laureate, Film Tintroduction: "Outbreak" (1995)
hree Hollywood blockbusters movies – Cassandra Crossing (1976), The Outbreak (1995), and Contagion (2011) – all medical disasters, deal with the outbreak of diseases due to some unknown virus. Out of the
three movies, Contagion is a blueprint of the current pandemic. Whatever is shown in the film has become a reality. The new virus responsible for the epidemic has threatened the entire human race of the planet. For the treatment of the new disease, there is no standardised protocol or vaccine. Only symptomatic treatment is given which sometimes is not enough to check the progress of the disease and takesa heavy toll on human life. In the film, the origin of the virus is traced back to Hong Kong. The sequence is one infected bat with a piece of banana, assumed to have the virus on it, which is dropped and eaten by a pig, which is slaughtered for food. The first to come in contact with the virus is a chef, who transfers it to another person by touch and starts the chain event. The film also explores a wide range of psychological reactions seen in various groups of the society. The film not only shows what has happened but also points towards what might be. In the film, it was a hypothetical virus MEV-1, something similar to SARS-CoV2, the virus responsible for the present COVID-19 pandemic. Now the entire world is in the grip of this virus. The virus has infected more than 1.6 million people and taken a toll of one lakh people in 177 of the 195 countries across the world. In India, all 32 States and UTs, various measures have been taken to contain the infection. Besides affecting the lives and livelihood, this virus has affected every aspect of our life, including our social and economic fabric, besides the way we work. We do not
know when life will return to normalcy. Has the COVID-19 caught us unprepared or it was wilful ignorance on our part?
We don’t know why this virus is so dangerous and whether all viruses are pathogenic and can cause epidemic or pandemic like SARS-Cov2 virus. Viruses even do not qualify to be called a living organism because they need a living host to reproduce or replicate. They are considered to be the link between living and non-living. They carry only genetic material in the form of either DNA or RNA encapsulated by protein and lipids. Viruses are classified as parasites by academicians. Interestingly, all
viruses are not pathogenic in nature; they are very host specific and may live in harmony with the host organism without causing any harm or disease.
There are more than 1,400 pathogens (including viruses, bacteria and fungi, and animals) discovered till date that affect human beings. What is worrying is the growing number of pathogens and the increasing number of diseases coming from animals. Are we creating more conducive habitats for viruses and other pathogens to transmit more easily to other species in search of the new host, by mutating themselves by changing their genetic material (DNA or RNA)? The memory of The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), a viral respiratory illness, is quite fresh in our mind. The virus that caused it jumped from animal to human and claimed more than 800 lives in 2003 across the world.
It is interesting to know that wildlife is a reservoir that harbours nearly half of the pathogens that could jump from animals and birds to humans. Domesticated animals in unhygienic conditions provide an ideal and conducive environment for a virus to jump from one species to another. A densely-packed place, like the wet market in Wuhan city in China, turn out to be the epicentre of such diseases. It is a known fact that throughout history, epidemics have been responsible for a sizeable portion of the fatalities suffered by the world. As long as people lived in small groups, isolated from each other, such incidents were sporadic. But now people travel from continent to continent, there is change in land use, degradation of the environment and loss of biodiversity clubbed with climate change. All this is putting unprecedented stress on all life forms, including viruses. It is a quest for survival among organisms that has made the SARS-CoV-2 turnout to be a more successful winner this time unlike earlier pandemics caused by its close cousins. Let’s examine the situation in an evolutionary
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